How is it that these photographs taken in 1974 feel as memorable as when I am writing this memoir in 2025 ? There is a recollection of how the light shone upon the subjects, the time of day, and whether or not we had a conversation about posing for the photos. In the case of the bus photos, there was no verbal interaction. With the neighborhood kids there was. The children on the 7900 block of South Saginaw were my neighbors and always willing participants over the seasons. The photographic technique was to interact with a friendly demeanor. Dad gave me a pawn shop find of a Kodak Retina Reflex 111c camera upon graduating Bowen High School in South Chicago in 1972. The manual compact camera came packed a lot of power with a German Schneider lens and Compur leaf shutter which is silent compared to a focal plane shutter. The lens retracted back into the body of the camera when not in as opposed to the SLR with multiple lenses that my fellow students used to capture their photos. The first frame is me! Here I am in my parent’s living room with the light pouring in after a long day at the University of Illinois, Chicago where I commuted everyday by multiple buses and trains. The first class was at 8:00 am that required me to leave the house by 6:30 am to catch the bus on 79th Street and transfer to the Jeffrey Express which was my favorite bus line. We continue on South Lake Shore Drive passed the Griffin Science and Industry Museum where I spent many afternoons as a child marveling over the live animals and chicks hatching from their eggs in an incubator, the airplanes overhead in the main hall, giant farm equipment, the Colleen Moore doll house, and many other exhibits. My parents were proponents of museums and it may have influenced my desire to become a photographer at the Field Museum in 1983.The Milwaukee- Congress subway dropped me off at the Halsted Street stop where I walked across the street to the Art and Architecture Building. My curriculum was a mixture of graphic design, photography, art history as well as the sciences and humanities. The ancient art history class taught an eccentric instructor by the last name of LaBranch was a standout where we dove into the history of Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia and Rome. I was fortunate enough to backpack through Italy, Greece and Egypt at 22 years old in 1977 and many of the photos are on exhibit at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago. The photography department included renowned instructors such as Joseph Jachna, Robert Steigler, Esther Parada, Cy Steiner and many others. We were motivated to turn film around in record time by photographing the assignment, processing the film in the darkroom and into the printing darkroom for a critique that would either make or break your day not to mention affect your grade point average. These photos reflect an every changing urban landscape in Chicago. The Southside was evolving quickly from a very White to Black neighborhood between the 1960s- 1970s. In 1974 there was still overlap of color as can be seen in the children playing together. Let the photos speak for themselves as they have for many decades in spite of technology and where we stand in the digital age. The digital age has created a platform that can share the history of photography because as the kids say, “pics or it didn't happen!
